Is Industrial Pollution Causing Natural Disasters?

Is Industrial Pollution Causing Natural Disasters?

Air pollution does more than make the skies hazy, with a new study suggesting the industrial ick is linked to drought, flooding and even hurricanes. The research, detailed this week in the journal Nature, suggests human activity can, and already has, driven large-scale regional climate changes.

The “dirty pollution,” it seems, can cause changes in the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean, which in turn drives the stormy activity, say the researchers from the Met Office, the U.K.’s National Weather Service. To a lesser extent, volcanic activity also drives this temperature variation and subsequent weather phenomena.